Chips made from Crickets
7-7-2014
To make insect meat palatable for the western world, the brand Six Food has created ‘Chirps’. The ‘Chirps’ are made of a mix from ground beans, rice and cricket powder that’s baked rather than fried. The result is a gluten-free, natural, low fat chip full of protein. Chirps are available for pre-order now.
Inglorious fruits and vegetables
7-7-2014
The third largest supermarket chain in France, Intermarché, introduced the campaign ‘inglorious fruits & vegetables’. The supermarket buys the ‘ugly’ fruits and vegetables that would normally be thrown away and sells it 30% cheaper. It is a win-win-win campaign: consumers get good quality fruits and vegetables for a cheaper price. The growers are paid for products that normally would be discarded and Intermarché increases its sales with this new line of products. Besides the ‘inglorious’ fruits and vegetables the supermarket sells soups and juices made from these products as well.
Intermarché launched this campaign nationwide trough billboards, social media, television and radio. In the Netherlands we have seen a number of actions to promote these ‘ugly’ products as well. In 2013 we saw the crooked cucumber action of the ladies of Kromkommer and the store Zegro in Rotterdam and in 2014 we’ve spotted the crowdfunding action for ‘kromkommer’ soups.
The Heavenly Rembrandt weeks
3-7-2014
The Rembrandt Tower Boardroom will be transformed into a temporary restaurant of the highest level. Led by chef Wilco Berends, a dinner inspired by ‘The Amsterdam of Rembrandt’ is composed. Museum ‘Het Rembrandthuis’ exhibits a few paintings of Rembrandt, together with a collectors item that has never been exposed before. The ‘Heavenly Rembrandt’ weeks take place during the ‘art & culinary’-weeks of Amsterdam, from 22 September till 4 October, and is available for everyone with a reservation.
Free online ordering system
2-7-2014
GloriaFood has released a new worldwide online ordering system for restaurants. Different from other online ordering websites, GloriaFood is free of charge for restaurants who participate. The system is easy implemented and managed by the restaurant owners themselves. Orders can be placed via the website, the app and facebook.
TWEAK
2-7-2014
TWEAK doesn’t just keep your kitchen sink draining smoothly, but solves the problem of scooping cold leftovers out of the sink with your bare fingers. We don’t think that this, via kickstarter (crowd funding platform) financed product, will be used in a lot of professional kitchens. But in the smaller kitchens this silicone washing strainer can be useful.
Riviera Music Lounge
26-6-2014
The Riviera Music Lounge opened in the basement of the Riviera Hotel in Benidorm (Spain). It is a New York Jazz club with the warm atmosphere of a hidden club and it has live music as main attraction. Special features are the backlighted marble bar, that fills the room with a magical golden light, and the walls, that are mainly covered with the names and portraits of famous jazz masters.
Tip this much in…
26-6-2014
Ever wondered whether you did tip sufficiently? With tipthismuch.in you will always know. Check if your holiday destination is mentioned on the website. The idea for the website was stolen from Jessica Hische who tweeted the following: ‘Someone should make something similar to http://umbrellatoday.com for international tipping practices #stealmyidea’. Great to see that the idea was picked up by Kate Sigrist, who designed the website and Jolyon Russ who built it.
#BDOYL by Thrillist in East Village in NYC
25-6-2014
#BDOYL, which means ‘Best Day of Your Life’, has been organized on 21 June, the longest day of the year. Thrillist took over a dozen well-known locations around New York, mainly within the East Village, and transformed them into one-day-only experiences. The event focused on food, drinks and special surprise events that were kept secret until they happened. Although all the pictures at Twitter and Instagram with #BDOYL look great, we hope, besides this introduction video, for a movie showing the well-kept secret events! Maybe we can learn how to throw a different party than all the culinary parties in many Dutch cities this summer.
The Tomato Greenhouse at Best Kept Secret festival
25-6-2014
During the ‘Best Kept Secret Festival’ the Food Line-up introduced the ‘Tomato Greenhouse’ together with Crick’s (by Agro Care) and Jord, chef cook and owner of Smokey Goodness. During the weekend a stunning 10,000 fresh tomatoes from the festival greenhouse were processed. The combination of a catering-connector, grower and rugged barbecue chef was a great seasonal starter, especially for the winners of a fresh breakfast including Bloody Marys.
RoominaMinute.com
24-6-2014
The booking website Roominaminute.com reverses the traditional booking model. Guests can fill in their accommodation preferences for a certain city or area, arrival date, departure date and additional preferations on the website. Within 25 minutes the affiliated accommodations respond to the request with a proposal and the guest can choose between the options. This reversed system is very convenient to get full occupancy during busy periods or no-shows and is developed by Nico Dijkstra. Earlier we saw that Bidroom.com launched a similar platform.
Opperdoezer Ronde potato on the menu
19-6-2014
To promote the special ‘Opperdoezer Ronde’ potato there was an event in the municipality of Medemblik last Saturday. Recently potatoes in general are negatively mentioned in the media as source of carbohydrates and starch that should be banned while dieting. This ban is unnecessary for the Opperdoezer Ronde and refuted by sufficient research. The potato has a protected designation of origin, which was granted by the European Union in 1996. A selection of professional athletes, nutritionists, growers and top chef Onno Kokmeijer (Ciel Bleu**) joined forces to get the Opperdoezer Round back on the menu.
A great way to celebrate Ruinart
18-6-2014
Exactly 250 years ago The House of Ruinart created the world’s first Rosé champagne. The House of Ruinart celebrates this anniversary with a ‘Ruinart Rosé Salon 1764 pop-up bar’ at The Goring Hotel in London. The private gardens of the historic hotel are the scenery for the dedicated pop-up bar. From mid June until 3 July, the guests of the Goring Hotel and Ruinart are transported back to the time the first Rosé champagne was created. Nice way to celebrate an anniversary and we know a couple of places in the Netherlands with sceneries perfect for a pop-up bar of my favorite champagne as well ;-). ^Marjolein van Spronsen
A summer camp for adults
18-6-2014
Active summer camps are mostly organized for children. For the adults who prefer an active holiday as well; the ‘Jackson hole run camp’ is a great example where an hotel and a sport coach work together to organize an active summercamp for adults. Hotel Terra and the Teton Mountain Lodge are hosting a multiday camp in the heart of the Mountains of Jackson Hole, Teton Village, Wyoming, with running coach Eric Orton for experienced runners who are looking for a challenge.
Sublimotion, Ibiza, a experience for all senses
17-6-2014
Journalist Teresa Machan had the opportunity to write an article for the Telegraph about her experiences while having dinner at Sublimotion. As she describes it, having dinner at the new restaurant of chef Paco Roncero (2 Michelin stars) is an experience for all your senses. The chef reacted to the question whether his ‘theatrical dinner’ really is the most expensive meal in the world, with the following statement, ‘Sublimotion is the cheapest life-changing experience anyone can have.’ We will have to start saving to experience this life changing dinner for € 1.500,= ourselves. The video gives a short introduction of Sublimotion.
The oPhone makes you smell your pictures messages
16-6-2014
Imagine all the possibilities if you can ad smell to your posts as restaurant. That’s mouthwatering marketing! This seems possible with the oPhone. Watch the video to get some idea of the possibilities. All though we think that it will take a couple of years before we all can use this feature as standard ;-).
Urinalfun for the World Cup 2014
16-6-2014
For those who will be watching our WK game this evening #NedChi, we wish you a lot of fun and many goals. For the next matches of the orange team, bar owners can still invest in urinal mats with a football goal. In the Netherlands, among others for sale with the seller of the bottlebob. And of course quite useful because with the way we’re winning a lot of beer will be drunk!
Wine from a can
16-6-2014
A great wine from a can? It’s possible according to Winestar. Winestar® offers a range of premium French wines. We tried a couple at the office last Friday; a white, red and rosé wine from the Corbières wine region. We have some great wine fans at the office and they all had problems with the paradigm shift from bottle to can. But even they liked the wine. Oké, they still prefer champagne with their picnic but #Winestar is a great alternative. The can contains 187 ml wine. Great for in minibars or for airline catering, unbreakable and light.
Orange cake as personal encouragement
15-6-2014
Hotel Theater Figi just made an orange cake for Parthen meeting service. Some hope that the Dutch team makes in to the quarterfinals of the EC!
Jopen Stephenson beer by Vomar
12-6-2014
To celebrate the opening of the renewed Vomar Supermarket the Haarlem based Jopen brewery created a special limited edition beer: Jopen Stephenson Beer. The Jopen Stephenson Beer is a blond beer with a refreshing taste and fruity hints from oranges. The beer resembles white beer a bit, contains wheat and oats and has a mild ‘hoppy’ (IPA, India Pale Ale) aftertaste. A wonderfull initiative where a supermarket creates a piece of local pride with a tasty beer, in my opinion more retailers should do this! ^ArmandSol
Profit from your fans and followers
11-6-2014
A new kind of booking site, Hotelied, offers luxury hotels the opportunity to target discounts towards influential travelers with a large social media influence. Hotels probably hope that by offering these deals, the discounts will be outweighed by the exposure and publicity. I am quite sure it’s been done already between bloggers and hotels. Some bloggers are quite clear in their communication about these deals. But now we have the website Hotelied where travelers have to create a profile and link to their Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin. For people with a lot of fans or followers a great opportunity to gain some profit. But on the other hand, could this mean that the social media becomes less social? It seems that hotels can kind of buy ‘good reviews’ from influential travelers. Am I too suspicious and could we consider this as a win-win situation for the hotels, the booking site and the travelers? And assume that all those fans and followers will be able to read between the lines, what do you think? ^Marjolein van Spronsen
Guide Lights might be handy in hotelrooms
11-6-2014
It looks as if these SnapRays Guidelights are designed for at home, but we think it might also be very useful in the hallways and the wet section of hotelrooms. With these LED lights it is a lot easier to find your way around the room to the bathroom or toilet.
Join the staff meal
10-6-2014
If you like to eat out early, it’s now possible to join the staff of FG Restaurant (restaurant Francois Geurts, 2 Michelin stars, Rotterdam) and FG Food Labs during their staff meal. From my own internship in another kitchen, I can still remember the fun of eating together. And especially for young people who are considering to start working in a restaurant, this is a nice opportunity to take a look. I have however reservations, recently I enjoyed a great diner at FG Food Labs and of course the staff meal is different… At both restaurants you have to be early, at FG Restaurant the staff meal is served from 17.00 to 18.00 and at FG Food Labs from 16.00 to 17.00. The staff meal is served at a reasonable rate and reservations are necessary. ^ Marjolein Spronsen
Warsteiner NightGolf Challenge
9-6-2014
The German premium beer Warsteiner transformed the Amsterdam Forest (Amsterdamse Bos) last June 7 to a golf course with a ‘par-3 course’ specially designed for the occasion. LED lighting and striking ‘glow-in-the-dark‘ golf balls guiding the players along the golf course in an exceptional setting that was made up of temporary tee boxes and greens. As the sun went down, the game started (at 23:00 hour) and the last ball found the hole at 02:00 hour. As sponsor of the KLM Open and as official sponsor of the European PGA Tour, the top European golf competition, Warsteiner wants to help golf to a wider audiences.
Novotel Amsterdam City made in LEGO
6-6-2014
The Novotel Amsterdam City was replicated in LEGO. It took more than 30 days and 5.000 stones to build the construction, it was revealed on 11 June. The mini building was constructed to promote the exhibition ‘The Art of the Brick’ at Amsterdam EXPO.
Temakeria, eating Brazilian style sushi
6-6-2014
Temaki, a Brazilian form of sushi, is available at Yoobi in London for a few of years already. The owners were inspired by trips in Japan and Brazil. The food reminds us of the Kono pizza but is authentic Japanese. Watch the video for a DIY instruction, so you can make an alternative snack during the World Championship the coming weeks!
Double Treatment Room
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